When less is more: gene loss in evolution

Large-scale analysis of gene losses sheds light on the evolution of mammalian features

06-Apr-2018 - The diversity of animals is one of the most fascinating aspects of nature. All habitats on the planet, be it land, water, or air, are occupied by species with incredible adaptations to their environment. One way to address the question of how this diversity has evolved is by comparing genes ...

Helicobacter creates immune system blind spot

By extracting cholesterol from host cell membranes, Helicobacter pylori generates “micro-islands”

16-Mar-2018 - The gastric bacterium H. pylori colonizes the stomachs of around half the human population and can lead to the development of gastric cancer. It is usually acquired in childhood and persists life-long, despite a strong inflammatory defence reaction in the gastric mucosa. Such inflammation is ...

A Keen Sense for Molecules

27-Feb-2018 - Laser physicists from the Laboratory of Attosecond Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have developed an extremely powerful broadband infrared light source. This light source opens up a whole new range of opportunities in medicine, life ...

Potential for a green energy economy based on hydrogen

First Characterization of a Sensory [FeFe] Hydrogenase

11-Jan-2018 - Hydrogenases are enzymes capable of making hydrogen gas (H2) using protons from water, a reaction with relevance to a potential future green energy economy based on H2. Bacteria containing these enzymes often produce H2 as a waste product during sugar metabolism in the absence of oxygen. ...

Crowding in the skin

Stem cells sense neighborhood density to make decisions on their behavior

13-Dec-2017 - Human skin is a remarkable organ serving as a barrier protecting us from pathogens, toxic substances and others. Our skin needs to constantly renew throughout our lifetime as well as change its size to perfectly fit and cover the body. To fulfill such a complex and dynamic behavior every cell ...

The future of crop engineering

Scientists want to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis

11-Dec-2017 - Photosynthesis is the process underlying all plant growth. Scientists aim to boost photosynthesis to meet the increasing global demand for food by engineering its key enzyme Rubisco. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry have succeeded in producing functional plant Rubisco ...

Cellular power outage

Quality control in the mitochondria

01-Nov-2017 - A common feature of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Huntington's disease are deposits of aggregated proteins in the patient's cells that cause damage to cellular functions. Scientists report that, even in normal cells, aberrant aggregation-prone proteins are ...

Stiff fibres spun from slime

Nanoparticles from the secretion of velvet worms form polymer fibres that can be recycled in water

18-Oct-2017 - Nature is an excellent teacher – even for material scientists. Researchers, including scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, have now observed a remarkable mechanism by which polymer materials are formed. In order to capture prey, velvet worms shoot out a sticky ...

Road map to a longer life

Tissues respond very differently to an ageing ameliorating intervention

09-Oct-2017 - In old age a variety of cellular processes decline and the risk to develop age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Diabetes increases dramatically. But does ageing affect all organs and tissues in the body in the same way? And should drugs that are developed to improve health in ...

Algae with light switch

The adhesion of Chlamydomonas, a unicellular alga, to surfaces is light-dependent

02-Oct-2017 - Sunlight allows green algae to do more than just carry out photosynthesis.. Some unicellular algae actually use light to switch the adhesion of their flagella to surfaces on and off – a phenomenon first discovered by physicists at the Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and ...